Mayor of Elmbridge opens new Garsons Restaurant

Local Food Britain member Garsons of Esher welcomed special guests (and a few familiar faces from the Local Food Britain team!) on Thursday 21st January 2016 to celebrate the opening of its brand new restaurant. The occasion was marked by a cake-cutting ceremony performed by the Mayor of Elmbridge, Councillor Jan Fuller, who said the restaurant was a wonderful opportunity for Garsons to share its food and growing heritage with a new generation of customers.

The new restaurant, which opened to the public in December, is part of refurbishment work that Garsons has undertaken over the last 18 months to transform the garden centre inside and out. Visitors to Garsons Restaurant will enjoy an outlook over the pick-your-own fields, which will also provide fruit and vegetables to the restaurant during the picking season.

In her speech, the Mayor noted how the family-run business, which has farmed the land at West End for nearly 150 years, will continue to inspire customers by using its home-grown produce in the new restaurant. Councillor Fuller also highlighted Garsons' importance to the local economy and community, providing more than 200 jobs for local people and giving back through its charity fundraising and Growing with Schools initiatives. She concluded: "But as part of our community, you are fulfilling a much more important obligation tonight and for the future, because you're going to feed us all. And you're going to feed us all great food!"

Around 100 invited guests enjoyed a selection of dishes from the restaurant menu, prepared by head chef Melvyn Redding and his team, including macaroni cheese with a rosti top, mini stilton and mushroom-topped burgers, braised steak and fish and chips. Melvyn, who has joined Garsons Esher from the Terrace Restaurant at the sister Garsons site in Titchfield, Hampshire, said he was looking forward to the first crops becoming available. "It's a pleasure for any chef to work so closely with the food where you've got the produce growing just outside the kitchen," he said. "We're using lots of local produce, such as our meat from Bevan's butchers, and other local suppliers for our breads and more, which is fantastic."

Among the guests was respected TV presenter and Surrey resident Nicholas Owen with his wife Brenda, who said he was looking forward to returning to Garsons with his grandchildren. Attendees were entertained by classical guitar duo Tom Ellis and Laura Snowden, alumni of the nearby Yehudi Menuhin School in Cobham, while they admired the farm-themed cake created by another Local Food Britain member, Emma Fuller of Dorking-based At The Cake House.

"We've created something unique to Garsons, to the village, to West End," said Garsons managing director Ian Richardson. "And now more people are able to enjoy what we've enjoyed over the generations."